Chosen of Elom
In the Ummah, miracles cannot be practiced by mortals directly. All occult rites are done by celestial entities like angels, jinni, and demons, and so mortals must act as their material conduits - this is why a lot of occultism in the Ummah is focused on building relationships and making deals with entities from beyond the plane. The chosen and prophets of Elom are not themselves performing powerful, supernatural feats, but are accompanied by the angels of Elom, who are invisible to all but the Chosen, except in special circumstances. The level of importance the angel has is relative to the level of importance the prophet has to the overall Word of Elom. Mubarak - Blessed one. Tens of thousands at any given time, they are aided by minor angels. These angels are capable of very minor blessings and miracles. Batal - Champion. No more than 12 at any given time, but even that is rare. They are aided by one of 12 of the 13 Arch-Angels, as this is excluding the most important, Arch-Angel, Metatron. They are capable of blessings and miracles relative to that angels' power, but have been given a mission by their angel. _________________________________________________ Nabi - Prophet. No more than one at any given time, though even one appearing in a generation is rare. They are accompanied and aided by Metatron, the Arch-Angel of the Word, for the purpose of a major holy quest. They may give prophecies, but their words are not the direct Word of Elom, and so are only added to the minor Holy Books. They are capable of major miracles and blessings. Rasul - Messenger. Only one at a time, except for one occurrence where there were two (See: the twin prophets). They appear every few hundred years at most, for the purpose of affecting the entire Ummah. They may, but not always, take the mantle of leader of the Ummah, before being replaced by a Khalifa - a temporal successor. They may speak the direct Word of Elom, and their revelations become major Holy Books unto their own. They are capable of large-scale miracles and blessings that could effect the entire Ummah. Mahdi - Chosen one. There have only been three Mahdi in the entire history of the world. They are a Rasul who has been prophesied by a previous Rasul to save the Ummah in an existential crisis or to usher in a major world event. Metatron enacted a large miracle with each Mahdi. The Five Major Prophets Levi the Pilgrim - The apparent author of the first holy book, The Book of The Whole, written on tablets as the earliest piece of writing in history, over two millennia before the turn of the New Age. The name "Levi" and his life story are all oral stories, as the author of the tablets was anonymous. The only major prophet who was not a Mahdi. The Book of The Whole tells the story of the history of the world, from beginning to prophesied end, in abstract, allegorical language. He outlines prophets of old from before him, stories of the Ummah, its founding and ancestral heroes which had already existed as oral tales, but with details never heard before. Levi was apparently a confused old man who left the city of Iram, wandered into the deserts, and returned having seen Elom, but was considered mad for his ravings. Part of his prophecy was claiming that a slave with markings on his face would rise to free the Ummah from the shackles of empire, and unite the disparate tribes under one flag. This might have seemed strange to them, as at the time, the Ummah was not even enough of a polity to be conquered - most people were nomadic shepherds who knew nothing of the world - and slavery of that nature was unheard of. Miracle - None. Idris the Uniter - Idris was a slave soldier who had his face tattooed with markings for all the victories he gave his master, a general of the foreign empire of Iksud, which had conquered much of northern Ummah, alongside other rival conquering entities and corrupt sultans. One day, in the thickness of battle, he was knocked out, and while unconscious received a message from Elom to slay his master and unite the Ummah. Obeying the word of his god, he then started a slave revolt - Idris and the soldiers proceeded to go from city to city, exiling and killing the tyrants there, uniting the people by force if necessary, issuing revelations as he did - this came to be known as The Book of Struggle. One of his prophecies was that while they would be free now, they would be conquered again, by an empire made of gold. They would slowly infect the land and its people, and the Ummah would be lost, and could only be brought back by "the maiden in shawls" who would make them remember who they were again. Idris finally, painstakingly united the lands in glorious battle, and went on to forge a nation in the blood of the martyrs. He died soon after, and the people decided to choose their first Khalifa to succeed his position. Miracle - Burning Rain of Sin. Idris destroyed the civilization of Iksud by calling down "raining fire" from space. Mira the Messenger - Known as "the mother of nations", Mira was a humble young shepherd whose tribe came into the service of a merchant prince named Emir Zimri. Upon seeing him, she was confused why he was wearing the foreign clothing of the golden-skinned occupiers from the Pact, openly questioning this. Zimri took a fondness to her naive spirit, and made her his servant girl, teaching her to read, giving her books to learn from, which included some of the old holy books which were supposed to be forbidden. She was shocked to see all the old traditions that were stripped away by the invaders, and was filled with wonder at the stories of her people that had been forgotten. In her dreams she received the message of Elom - of the rebirth of the Ummah. Escaping Emir Zimri's palace with books in tow, she went from city to city, bringing national pride back to the people, telling them forgotten tales, dressed in shawls to disguise herself - this came to be known as The Book of Rebirth. As she grew older and her name began to spread, her messages became more esoteric and direct, rather then political and allegorical, messages from Elom about the best way one can live their life, philosophizing revelations about knowledge, learning, suffering and how one should treat others. This came to be known as The Book of Trials. Within the book contained a prophecy that the Ummah could become whole now, but it could not be free as "This burden needs two souls to hold it - one to redeem and one to punish" At the turn of the New Age, she called for a revolution, triggering a massive Pact-created plague to pacify the populace, when she disappeared: to many, cutting her revelations short. The disappearance became an important event in history, as angelic interference became much rarer after this, and it seemed to signal a turn to more temporal politics . However, the Ummah revolted again anyway 22 years later, in her name - and it was a success. The Ummah was briefly free of the Pact in a glorious golden age which lasted for half a century - a period known as "Mira's Respite" in the Ummah. After Ogden Khan ravaged the land and killed the Khalifa, the Pact's imperial forces took the opportunity to re-conquer the Ummah again, and the people lost their freedom once more. Miracles - Mira had two miracles in her life, the Resurrection of the Humble and the Breaking of the Idols. She revived at least four dead throughout her life, most famously with Ayub, the Batal of Seltiel, the Archangel of Humility, after they were executed for refusing to kneel to a statue of the Cthon. She also simultaneously broke the faces of every idol in the city of Istiraha, the capital city of the Ummah - many of these idols were of angels of Elom, signaling a major iconoclastic change in worship, though she claimed that was the original, pure creed which was diluted over time. Talal the Redeemer and Elias the Punisher - The twin prophets, neither is a Mahdi individually, but count as one collectively. Both brothers were well-read preachers in the 830s and 840s, with wildly different messages - Talal had spend his adolescence to the southern deserts as a hermit nomad before moving back north, and he focused on the individual and their personal accountability, forgiveness and mercy for the meek, while Elias had always lived on the streets, and he attempted to politically agitate against the Pact's forces, with much more grounded, materialist rhetoric than his brother. They received Elom's revelations at the same time, but in very different circumstances - Elias while he was being strangled by an imperial guard, and Talal while he was deep in prayer after fasting for many days. Elias gained the strength to beat the guard back, and Talal gained the true light of Elom, spurning him to join forces with his brother, combining their messages together. They took advantage of the lack of attention that the southern Ummah had from the empire, and went south to recruit, train, and organize a massive guerrilla army. By sabotaging and depleting the resources of the Pact's occupation as much as they could, their presence started to weaken more and more, and the rebellious forces grew as a result. The revolution was slow and difficult, but when Talal was killed, the twins' uprising gained a surge in popularity, anger causing full-scale warfare. When the last soldier left the Ummah and freedom was returned, Elias left leadership to a Khalifa, rather than taking it for himself. The revelations of the twins are put together in The Book of Salvation, the shortest of the major holy books. In it, Talal prophesied a powerful golden age, a brief utopia, but that one day the land would be ruined, from foreign incursion and internal strife, an opening for devils to enter the land and bring about the apocalypse. In this time of confusion and hate, the scar of the land would be healed by one true prophet, who would be gleamed from a sea of false prophets. Miracle - The Ascension of the Warriors. Talal and Elias simultaneously performed two minor miracles, which together created major ones - Talal made all of his soldiers be able to resist their own gravity, letting them effectively fly, while Elias equipped them with glowing swords that could shoot pure holy light. This made them the fiercest flying force the world had ever seen, and lead to the liberation of all of the major holy cities.